Home and Away with Aliens (Pitch Black (DVD))

Member Name: robbroome

Product:	Pitch Black (DVD)
Date:	21/03/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The coolest bad guy in history, great effects

Disadvantages: God damned Aussies !

Are you afraid of the dark? Well, you should be! Because Pitch Black is an exciting, edge of your seat Sci-fi horror thriller.
The basic premise of the film is that a cargo ship, transporting people to a distant planet, accidentally gets caught in an asteroid belt. The ship takes heavy damage and crashlands on a desert planet with three suns which keeps the planet blazed in permanent daylight. The crew is dead except for the pilot and all that is left of the passengers are a few Settlers. A bounty hunter and his quarry, a highly dangerous killer.

Whilst looking for water they come across a mysteriously deserted encampment that has been empty for 22 years. At about this time, a member of the party disappears and at first the convict, Riddick (Vin Diesel) is the prime suspect. It soon transpires that the creatures that killed the man lives underground in a subterranean cavern as they are photophobic (Allergic to the sun and and bright lights). These creatures are also responsible for the deaths of the people in the encampment.
The party are safe in the sunlight but to their horror, they discover that the planet is plunged into total darkness by a Total eclipse that occurs every 22 years and time is running out. Their only hope of survival is to fly from the planet in the abandoned ship at the encampment. They go back to the cargo ship to retrieve fuel pods but the eclipse occurs before they are able to escape the planet. Their only hope of salvation lies in Riddick, as he has implants in his eyes that allow him to see through the darkness.

The cast is made up of a group of unknowns and I think that there are only about ten people in total who actually appear in the film. They all act superbly though the pick of the bunch has to be Vin Diesel as Riddick (probably the best guy in movie history) ad Cole Hauser as his nemesis, the bountyhunter Jonze. The special effects are amazing, with the CGI creatures being so realistic there is a dinstict danger that those of a nervous disposition may soil their underwear. It's 104 minutes of exhilarating tension.
The DVD is presented in a 2.35:1 (anamorphic) ratio and has had a fantastic picture transfer. The images are really clean and the blacks, once the eclipse has occurred, are fantastic with very little pixellation

The 5.1 Soundtrack is superb and will have you looking over your shoulder to make sure that one of the creatures isn't behind you. You've got a choice of English and German for the languages as well as subtitles in English, German and Dutch.
The disc also boasts quite a few extras. These are :-

* Into Pitch Black
A good 'making of' documentary.

* A brilliant Feature Commentary with Director David Twohy and actors Cole Hauser and Vin Diesel.
This is probably the best commentary I've ever heard on DVD. It's very informative but at the same time gut bustingly hilarious (Especially Hauser bragging about how many aliens he's bagged with his shotgun)

* Feature Commentary with Director, Producer and Visual Effects Supervisor.
This one is a bit more strait-laced but is very informative.

* A DVD newsletter
* Production Notes

* Cast Bio's
* Filmmaker Bio's

* Web Cast/ Rave Footage
* Trailers

I think this is possibly the best film to come out of the Sci-fi/Horror genre (sorry Ridley!) and definitely recommend it. The only thing that's annoying is the amount of Aussies in it. I was half expecting Paul Hogan to pop out at any minute!

Summary: Home and Away with Aliens